Random thoughts from the mind, about whatever interests me at the time.

If You Are Doing Nothing Wrong You Have PLENTY to Fear – 30 Examples

By Doug Newman
Sometimes I just want to pimp slap people.
Last summer, I was at dinner during a sales convention. The conversation didn’t get political until someone mentioned the NSA.
There is one in every crowd. Someone piped up and said, “They can spy on me all they want. I am not doing anything wrong.”
They sang this song in Germany in 1933. And they sang it with
unprecedented gusto in the months following 9/11, all in the name of
“security” and “keeping us safe”.We
were at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, the world’s second largest hotel.
Nothing in the post-9/11 “national security” apparatus would prevent a
terrorist from walking in, setting off a bomb, and killing hundreds or
even thousands of people.
The more important questions are: How do you know you are doing
nothing that could be construed as wrong by some state functionary? How
do you know you are not breaking some law somewhere? And why are you so
implicitly trusting that your government would never do anything evil
with the information it has collected on you?
This is not purely an academic matter. The practical implications are profound.
I give you several examples.
1. Niakea Williams went to her son’s St. Louis-area elementary school
one day to pick up her son, who has Asperger’s. The school was put on
lockdown and Mrs. Williams was escorted out in handcuffs.
2. Adrionna Harris was almost expelled from her middle school in Virginia Beach after taking a razor blade away from a fellow student who was trying to harm himself.
3. Read what Houston police did to this man who gave 75 cents to a homeless person.
4. A little known Denver parking ordinance can get you a $25 fine even if you haven’t exceeded the two-hour limit.
5. Police in Iowa City, Iowa, seized $50,000 from this couple without charging them with a crime.6. Alberto Willmore lost his teaching job in Manhattan over a totally bogus marijuana arrest. Even though he was never convicted of anything, he was unable to get his job back.
7. Norman Gurley was arrested in Lorain County, Ohio, because a compartment in his car could have been used to transport drugs.
8. Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies shot and killed 80-year-old Eugene Mallory in his own bed during a meth raid. No meth, or any other illegal drugs, was discovered.
9. Paul Valin contacted police to report that he found a backpack
full of what he believed to be meth-making equipment 15 miles from his
home near Des Moines. As a result, the DEA placed his house on its list of meth labs.